Neighbors
by Naidoo
Summary: Penelope's someone quiet life gets an upgrade with a new neighbor upstairs


_A/N: Surprise! Are you surprised? :)  
_

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Penelope liked her life. It was a good life, a quiet life. She lived in a good area of D.C., liked her neighbors and got along super-well with everyone. But... that all that changed a good few days ago when her upstairs neighbor left and in moved someone new.

She hadn't had a chance of meeting the new neighbor so far, but she had heard enough. As if the constant hammering and drilling wasn't enough, at night it all seemed to be finished in screaming, mixed with moaning and other ecstatic, sex-like noises.

Penelope sure as hell wasn't a prude but she actually would have liked to spend a day without any sort of noise coming from upstairs. After five days she had enough. How long could it possibly take to set up furniture, drill a few holes for god knows what and get a few nails in the walls to hang stuff? She was a patient woman, but even her patience was coming to an end.

Standing in front of her new neighbors door she found herself arguing whether this didn't make her look like some prudish, bitter old woman who had nothing better to do than complain and wait for things to happen so she could complain some more. But no, that was ridiculous. Maybe someone should just tell this guys what was going on. Clearly none of their other neighbors had been forthcoming so far.

She knocked and waited, seeing the door being yanked open a few seconds later and hearing a rather aggressive "what?"

She was met by what looked like 300 pounds of muscles and flesh and a rather annoyed face. He looked good, but in a roguish way. Five o'clock shadow, tanned and eyes she could actually get lost in if she wasn't careful.

"Hi," she started, got herself out of whatever funk she'd been in a moment ago and smiled. "Sorry to disturb you but… I was wondering whether it is possible to actually stop doing what you are doing?"

"Why? You bothered?"

"Actually, yes I am. I have been bothered since the past five days. If you aren't drilling, you are hammering. And if that isn't going on you have some what I assume are overnight guests. Not… that I try to tell you what to do and not. But…maybe you could keep it down?"

"How about: I don't?" he asked, smiling.

"But…" Penelope started, perplex by his reaction. A moment later the door was closed right into her face. What a freaking rude person.

After her complaining the noises stopped. For a good, few days. Until it started again and she found herself in front of his door once more. With the same result. He closed the door when she was mid-sentence.

That strange interval kept coming over the next few days. A day or two quiet and all of a sudden it started again. And slowly she became annoyed. She had a job that required her to be rested, awake and not agitated, sleep-deprived and unrested. And right now, after almost two weeks of hell and no way of talking to her upstairs neighbor without giving in to the desire to kill him.

As a few more weeks passed on, Penelope got strangely sued to everything. Until now!

She could live with the bad parking by blocking two spots some days. She could live that he sometimes parked in her spot – she just took his then. She could by now deal with the noises. She could deal with all the women that somehow walked past her on most days and without a doubt came from one particular apartment.

But now he really had gone too far. Her flowers? The one she had planted in the back of the garden? Technically it was a community-garden but…still. She wouldn't just walk over to Mr. Hedgens carrots or tomato-plants and help herself, would she?

She was up these three flights of stairs in record time – for herself anyway – and stood now in front of his door. She knocked, more aggressive than she had intended. But maybe that was the way to go, show him she meant business and that she was pissed. Really, really pissed off. She loved those flowers and had spent months getting them to where they were.

When the door opened Penelope was about to start her prepared speech but stopped momentarily, surprised – to say the least.

Either neighbor from hell had transformed in the past few weeks to some sort of god, or she got the wrong apartment! And she was certain she was at the right place. But somehow the guy in front of her didn't look at all like the guy from the previous few visits. Especially so close up and personal, when all he was wearing were very low slung sweatpants and … nothing else really.

"WHO are you?" she asked dumb-folded. Yeah, not her smartest moment really.

The guy smiled somewhat amused at her. "YOU asking ME that? I think I should be the asking that question, seeing that you bang like a maniac on my door."

"I'm Garcia," she said, being momentarily distracted by the size of his upper arms that showed when he leaned casually against the door. "I mean Penelope. I'm Penelope Garcia. I live one floor down," she corrected herself

"Nice to meet you Penelope Garcia. Since you asked initially, I'm Morgan, Derek Morgan and as you probably noticed, I live on this floor." And god, that smile. He might not have really been as funny as he thought he was, but who cared. As long he kept smiling that smile…

"Funny," she replied, forcing a quick smile and seeing him smile at her fully once more.

"I know," he answered, still smiling. "But I'm certain you didn't make it up here to ask who I was." He still smiled and for a moment shifted his position. Maybe leaning against the door was painful after a while.

"Well, it certainly was a trip worth making," Penelope mumbled to herself. Judging by his smile she sad that louder than intended. "I mean… It's always nice meeting new neighbors. Welcome to the …'hood," she quickly added, smiling.

Her addition got her a raised eyebrow on his account. "The hood?"

Yeah, she wasn't sure where that one had been coming from either. "Um…. yeah. I was…. wondering, and don't take that the wrong way but…. You live alone?"

At her question she saw him smiling widely. "Why, you wanna move in? Usually I require a date first."

She barely stopped herself from saying "that can be arranged". That would surely have gone down great.

"I just… the last time I was here I could have sworn there was someone else answering the door. Someone less… talkative."

He thought about that for a moment before – at least what Penelope assumed – realization hit. "That was Hunter. He stays over for a day or so when I'm out of town for a while to watch Clooney and well, also to help me get this apartment on the way."

"Clooney?"

"My dog. He's a handful. Though, maybe not as much as you might be," he replied grinning widely and Penelope felt a blush cover her cheeks.

As if on cue a cute as a button puppy was running towards her.

"Not wanting sound like animal control or something….but isn't an apartment maybe a bit small for a dog like him?" she said, bending down to pet Clooney's head.

"Well, yes and no. I'd prefer for him to have more space as well, but this was a sort of last minute urgent solution kind of thing."

"That doesn't sound too good. I'll take a wide guess here and go with either break-up or promotion and relocation for the job."

Morgan smiled at that for a moment, seeming to wait whether she'd make up her mind and settle on one option.

When that didn't happen, he prompted. "What'd you say is more likely?"

"I know you a total of like ten minutes so not sure. But I'd go with job."

"Why?" he asked curious and amused.

"Have you looked in a mirror recently? WHO in their right mind would leave YOU?" she asked shocked. And did she just say that out loud? "I mean…. Unless of course you were the one who broke up – but I guess women would do anything for that not to happen!"

And she _did_ not say that last remark out loud. Please!

Judging by his rather amused expression she wasn't that lucky. She groaned, looking at him somewhat in a painful expression "I'm digging my own grave here, ain't I? I swear usually I'm not a lunatic."

At that he laughed for a moment. "I bet."

"Just give me a chance eventually to redeem myself," she said smiling, deciding that maybe _now_ was a great time to leave before she could make even more a fool out of herself.

"So, about that date…."


End file.
